Thrift Tips #2: Colored Tag Sales

 Welcome to another weekly installment of thrift tips. Today, I am going to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about colored tag sales. I'm sure you've seen the signs that say "all  items with pink tags 50% off." But did you know that thrift shop managers use colored tags to control their inventory? You can  use your favorite store's color cycle to determine the best days to shop and I'll tell you how...

Home for the Holidays: Christmas in So Cal

I'm writing this entry from the airport. I spent the weekend with my Mom and Brother in San Diego. The weather was perfect. And so was my Mom's new place. She has the most adorable craftsman-style bungalow with all the period built-ins still intact. She thrifts as much as I do but focuses on housewares. Here is a peek at her collection:

She has really good taste doesn't she? And she found most of that lovely stuff at the thrift store. I'm trying to convince her to open an Etsy shop, but she is a busy woman...

Thrift Tips #1: My Three Basic Rules of Thrifting

              

As promised, I give you the first installment of Thrift Tip Tuesday:

I'm not gonna lie, finding gold at thrift stores is mostly luck. But, like black jack, there are strategies that will tip the odds in your favor. Every Tuesday I will share my strategies, superstitions, and secrets of thrifting. This week I give you the three rules I always follow when I thrift...

Thrift Score: Holy Shoes!

I hit vintage pay-dirt at the thrift store this weekend. I got some great clothes (pics to come). But lets talk about my new shoes for a minute.

Faux fur-lined red leather hi-tops anyone? Oh yeah, that's right. The fur, inside and out, is crazy clean and the soles are good to go. They are a little worn in the toes but that's to be expected from 20 y.o. sneakers. Honestly,not really my style, but they are comfortable as sh*t so I may keep these babies.

Just a pair of classic, suede, slouchy ankle boots. They  are a teensy bit too small for me so they are getting stashed for the soon-to-be-open vintage clothes and accessories section of my Etsy shop. I want the section to open with a bang so I am hording.

I love Mary Janes, and these are super precious. The t-strap is a golden chain! The silhouette reminds me of the 60s but I'm pretty sure they are dancin' shoes from 80s. None of that matters.They were made for me.

And here we have a pair of ubiquitous brown suede boots from the 70s. They are pretty standard. I have a pair, almost exactly like this, that has been a staple of my wardrobe for the past 4 years. They might give out any day now and I'll have this pair around for back-up

Oh these? Well they aren't vintage. They're just a pair of relatively-current Steve Maddens that I found for 6 bucks. I don't think they have ever been worn. I really love spectator shoes and this pair is particularly fetching.

Yay vintage Hush Puppies! Don't these boots kind of look like they were made recently by an Urban Outfitters brand, maybe Seychelles or Cooperative?  Well they weren't. They were made by Hush Puppies, like, 30 years ago.                                    

None of the shoes above cost more than 8 dollars. And they are better quality, and more interesting, than a lot of the stuff out there for 10 times that price. You don't need to spend a bunch of money to have an awesome wardrobe. And you don't have to exploit foreign workers, or natural resources, to get stuff cheap.

Thanks for visiting me in internet land. Tomorrow, I'll be posting the first in a weekly series of thrift tips. So come check me out if you want to read my version of the when, where, what, how, and with whom of finding the best second hand stuff in your area.

New Work Space/ DIY: Shadow Box Shelves From an Old Sewing Box

 shadow box shelves

Tony was generous enough to give me a corner of his office as a workspace for my crafty, creative endeavors. It isn't the prettiest space in the world (no natural light) but it's mine. I collected all my lovely  upcycled jewelry supplies  that were piling up around the house and organized them on my new/old metal shelves. Unfortunately, my yarn stash still has to live in a totally different part of the house.

Those are all thrifted chains on the left, waiting to be upcycled

When the work space was all set up and ready to go I realized that I would be staring at a blank white wall while I worked. I  can't have that. I wanted to used something that I already had to decorate the wall space. So I transformed a thrifted, wood sewing-box into a cute ensemble of shadow boxes.

The box.

If you want to do something like this your self you will need : An old multi-tiered sewing box (or  various wooden boxes), a power drill (with drill and screwdriver bits), and long-ish screws (long enough to go through the box and anchor it to the wall),  You might also want a level (I didn't have one and mine turned out fine. But if I had one, I would have used it)

The first thing I did was take apart  the box and clean it up a bit....

Then I drilled a hole in the two top corners of each box. Hey, if you want to go all out, you can drill holes in every corner. It will make the shelves more secure, but it isn't necessary in my opinion.

One hole down

Power drills are your friend. And they are super easy to use. If you have never used one before, find a friend or relative who has one and ask them to come over and show you whats up. Trust me, once you get the hang of it, you will be looking all over the house for stuff to drill.(minds out of the gutter people)

Ok at this point I am realizing  that I didn't take enough pictures. Oh well you live and learn. My next DIY will be super killer with tons of pictures. I promise. Anywhoo. Once the holes were drilled, I laid the boxes out on the floor and decided  on a cute arrangement. I wanted it to be asymmetrical and have a mid century modern feel. And I think I achieved that.

 My next move was time to screw the boxes to the wall and I was sans level. No biggie. I simply screwed one corner of the long, rectangular box to the wall and adjusted it until it looked straight. I got Tony to stand at the back of the room and direct. Once it was straight, I screwed the other corner to the wall. I used this first box as a guide to ensure the others were straight and got to screwing those around it. 

 this photo shows that my boxes may not be perfectly straight.

 A word on studs: Since these shadow boxes are for decoration more than storage, I didn't make a fuss about finding studs to screw into. It just so happened that, with my layout, each box ended up having one corner screwed into a stud. Lucky me! Don't know what a stud is? Read this wiki: wall studs . Still confused? Don't worry about it. If your boxes are small and the trinkets you adorn them with are light, finding a stud isn't that important.

Well that's it. Basically separate the boxes, drill holes in the boxes and screw them to the wall. If you have an old sewing box laying around, and a blank wall staring you down, give it a try.

Blog is Born

Hello Friends, welcome to my new blog, where I will share what I wear, myadvice and adventures in thrifting, my favorite hand made lovelies, and whatever else comes to mind. I've been using tumlbr to share my musings. But I decided to move on over here. I will still be using tumblr for photos, links and to re-blog hungover owls. But my longer format posts will live on this new blog. I have some super-cool stuff to share with ya'll  and I can't wait to get started.  Lets do this.